There is considerable interest in monitoring and measuring the usage of media data accessed by an audience via radio, satellite, network, or other source. In order to determine audience interest and what audiences are being presented with, a user's system may be monitored for discrete time periods while connected to a network, such as the Internet. There is also considerable interest in providing market information to advertisers, media distributors and the like which reveal the demographic characteristics of such audiences, along with information concerning the size of the audience. Further, advertisers and media distributors would like the ability to produce custom reports tailored to reveal market information within specific parameters, such as type of media, user demographics, purchasing habits and so on. In addition, there is substantial interest in the ability to monitor media audiences on a continuous, real-time basis.
In addition to audience measurement, there has developed an increased interest in being able to remotely configure terminal devices, such as set-top boxes (STBs), to suit the needs of the measuring entity. As STBs become more sophisticated devices, users are able to use them much in the same way they use home computers, laptops, tablets and the like. The growing popularity of Internet Protocol television (IPTV) has created additional possibilities in home media consumption and media measurement. Briefly, IPTV is a system through which television and/or other services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of (or in addition to) being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats. Typically, IPTV services include (a) live television, with or without interactivity related to the current TV show, (b) time-shifted television, i.e., replaying a TV show that was broadcast previously, and (c) video on demand (VOD) that allows access to a catalog of videos, not related to TV programming. Since a STB network connection is present, additional media such as streaming audio or radio, web pages may be received in the STB As well.
While current technology allows STBs to be configured at a customer premises, more recent technology allows STBs to be configured remotely to include software updates, new programming, or additional services. However, this current technology is performed almost exclusively through a data connection that is not scalable across different platforms, and makes it tedious for content providers to give users access to additional content and/or functionalities on their respective STBs. Accordingly, there is a need for new and/or additional techniques for configuring STBs and other media devices remotely. By opening media device configuration to other platforms, new functionalities may be enabled that give users flexibility in configuring their devices, while giving media measurement entities new formats for determining media consumption.